Yesterday, Team Penske’s No. 12 Verizon IndyCar driven by Will Power reached Victory Circle at Portland International Raceway. It was a team effort that combined solid strategy, quick pit stops and an experienced driver able to fend off attacks from the No. 7 McLaren of Christian Lundgard and the No. 10 of Alex Palou, who himself clinched the 2025 IndyCar Series Championship for Ganassi Racing.
Today, racing media is calling the win Power’s good-bye gift to the team that’s been his home for 17 seasons. At 44-years-old undoubtedly Will Power is in the twilight of his career, and Team Penske must plan for the future. It’s been widely speculated that 23-year-old David Malukas, who currently competes for AJ Foyt Racing, will eventually replace Will Power. But do the numbers make sense to replace Power now?
For famed Team Penske, the 2025 IndyCar season has been the worst in a quarter century. Winless through the first 14 races of the year, the team was rocked by a cheating scandal in May, and never really recovered. The team president and many of the top brass were terminated by owner Roger Penske. But Will Power is the team’s top driver, currently 6th in the standings and faring better than his teammates Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden in 11th and 18th places respectively. As for Malukas who is 10th in the standings, Power actually lapped him on route to victory yesterday despite the two racers starting side-by-side at the drop of the green flag.
Power’s Penske contract expires at the end of the season, and replacing the oldest driver in the roster makes sense on paper, but the numbers just don’t add up. In his tenure at the team, Will Power has achieved an Indianapolis 500 win in 2018, and two IndyCar Series Championships in 2014 and 2022. Another accomplishment is the fact that Power holds the all-time record of 71 pole-positions, the most in IndyCar’s 114 year history.
Team Penske has a long history of success in open-wheel racing, and racing greats that have driven for the team include Rick Mears, Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, Mark Donohue, Danny Sullivan, Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy. But another interesting statistic is that Will Power actually has the most IndyCar race wins for Team Penske in its history reaching back to 1968. Will Power isn’t just Team Penske’s winningest driver ever, his 45 wins places him 4th on IndyCar’s all-time wins list behind only AJ Foyt, Scott Dixon, and Mario Andretti.
Beside all of the success, Power has been an true inspiration for a generation of racers. In his early days with Team Penske, Power was known as a road-course specialist whose weakness was big ovals. He finished runner up in 2010, 2011 and 2012 all because he was unable to seal the deal at the season ending oval track races. But he improved, worked on his weaknesses, and became a ‘complete’ IndyCar driver with wins on short-ovals and superspeedways. Lesser men would have been crushed by the disappointment of losing the championship 3 years in a row, but Power exemplified the meaning of the word perseverance.
The future for Will Power is unclear at this point. Last week RACER ran an article about the long list of teams looking to hire Power for 2026 and beyond if Penske does not re-sign him. AJ Foyt Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Juncos Hollinger, Meyer Shank Racing and Rahal Lanigan Letterman Racing all want him but may not have the millions available to pay a driver of Power’s stature.
Or Power could just retire and take a management role at Team Penske like Rick Mears has, and satisfy himself by racing the Indy 500 only. Who knows? One thing is for certain is that Power has made the decision of whether to replace or re-sign him even more difficult for Team Penske with this weekend’s fantastic result.